After returning in 1836 from his adventure, within two years he served as secretary of the Geological Society from 1838 to 1841. In that time period he wrote The Journal of a Naturalist and married his cousin, Emma Wedgwood. In the 1840's, Charles did a lot of writing, including the first draft of the book that made him well known. It was not until 1858 that Darwin's ideas were discovered to be similar with Alfred Russel Wallace and they co-authored a paper on Natural Selection. Darwin's book, The Origin of species by Means of Natural Selection was published in 1859. It was praised and hated at the same time because the book went against the "Biblical portrayal of creation". As soon as the controversy died down, Darwin fired it back up in 1871 with the publication of The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. Darwin, without Wallace, was the first to attempt to find an explanation of the varying species and to come up with a theory of evolution.

Darwin was more than an average man. He lived the life he wanted and followed his love for nature. He received many honors from the societies in Great Britain. He had two daughters and five sons and lead a life to remember. He died in April of 1882.

Darwin used his scientific ability on board the Beagle and came up with a theory that is discussed in every biology class world wide. Although his theory of evolution by natural selection has changed with the time, it remains the fundamental concept upon which the modern life sciences are mounted. Darwin realized that each species of today originated from some other life form and he convinced the world of the mechanisms by which such transitions occur.